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Robert Verkaik - The Traitor of Arnhem |
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Operation Market Garden holds a particular fascination, mainly due to how unusual it was. The plan was for three divisions of paratroops and glider troops (the British1st Airborne Division and the US82nd Airborne Division and101st Airborne Division) to capture a series of bridges over theMeuse andRhine that would be crossed by the BritishXXX Corps, spearheaded by theGuards Armoured Division. It was the largest airborne operation, and a most innovative one. There are two good films about it:Theirs Is the Glory (1946), which features many of the participants playing themselves; andA Bridge Too Far (1977), with an all-star cast.
The operation was not one of those that required everything to go right. Indeed, many things went wrong and it nearly succeeded anyway. Among the things that went wrong were the unexpected stubbornness of the German forces, the inconveniently close presence of two SS panzer divisions (the9th SS Panzer Division Hohenstaufen and the10th SS Panzer Division Frundsberg), the demolition of bridges, the variable September weather in north-west Europe, the difficulty of supplying a corps over a single highway and communication difficulties. In the end, too many things going awry led to failure.
This book is about the leak of the operational plans to the Germans. There were two sources of these. The first, which occupies the first half of the book, involvedChristiaan Lindemans, a Dutch triple agent working for the British, Germans and Russians. A more colourful character would be hard to find, and Lindemans's exploits make very entertaining reading. Three days before Operation Market Garden began, Lindemans crossed German lines and gave German GeneralKurt Student information on an imminent Allied airborne attack onEindhoven andArnhem. Although very sketchy, this gave Student an opportunity to make some last-minute tactical changes. Nonetheless, the operation achieved strategic and operational surprise. (Interesting tidbit:Cornelius Ryan was persuaded to omit this incident from his bookA Bridge Too Far (1974). Ryan noted that Student was given a copy of plans recovered from a crashed glider on the first day, but this gave details of the 101st Airborne Division's operation only.)
We know that the Germans had better information. The rest of the book is about another leak, by a spy in Britain known as "Josephine". The evidence is that Josephine was a German and Russian agent operating in the UK, communicating to the Germans through Karl Heinz Kraemer in neutral Sweden. The British intelligence services during and after the war were unable to locate Josephine, but withAnthony Blunt andKim Philby on the job, this is not entirely surprising. Josephine was highly trusted by the Germans, but actually led them astray by sending details of what was actuallyOperation Fortitude, the D-Day deception plan. The author of this book, Robert Verkaik, points the finger at Anthony Blunt. A sleazier character would be hard to find, and Blunt's story is only enhanced by the fact that while Kim Philby was rotting away in Moscow after his defection, Blunt continued to live the good life asSurveyor of the Queen's Pictures, eventually being granted immunity from prosecution in return for grassing on his colleagues. The problem with this, then and now, is that Blunt hated fascists even more than he liked communists, so handing over such vital information to the Germans is out of character.
The conspiracy theory is that Stalin did not want Market Garden to succeed and the Allies to force a separate peace with the Germans or capture Berlin (an outcome most would consider extremely unlikely). However, I have heard this one before. During 1944, Australian War Cabinet documents made their way to Japan, where we picked them up throughUltra. The source of the leak was found to be a Soviet spy. The message was transmitted to the Soviet Union via China. It is not known how or why they went to Japan. Was there a Japanese spy in the Soviet organisation?
If you like spy stuff, this book is recommended.
Publishing details:Verkaik, Robert (2024).The Traitor of Arnhem: WWII's Greatest Betrayal and the Moment That Changed History Forever. London: Headline Welbeck Non-Fiction.ISBN 978-1-80279-744-2.OCLC 1493636948.
Great at Heart - Garry Hills |
Great at Heart is a biography ofGavin Long, who was a journalist and theofficial historian of Australia's contribution to World War II. In this role, he wrote three of the 22 volumes in theAustralia in the War of 1939–1945 series and edited most of the remainder. He also wrote a summary of the series,The Six Years War. Garry Hills is a semi-professional historian and this appears to be his first book.
Surprisingly, this is the first book-length biography of Long, who died in 1968. It is also probably the most substantial work on the official history series. Hills credits prolific Australian historianPeter Stanley as having inspired the book, as well as having provided useful advice as he was writing it. The book provides a workmanlike account of Long's life and work, with a focus on his pre-war work as a journalist and role in preparing the official history series.
I found the coverage of Long's journalistic career to be more detailed than that of his work as a historian, which was disappointing as it's not his main claim to fame. The material on how Long planned for the official history series, selected authors and oversaw the preparation of books is at times frustratingly non-specific. Readers get a useful overview of these issues, but not much more. The chapters on the official history include some interesting commentary on the books by other experts and reviewers, but it's a shame that Hills doesn't seem to have had the confidence to offer his own views. The book also doesn't really grapple with the main criticism of the series, that the volumes are generally too long and detailed - Hills briefly makes the point that this is also a virtue as they served as the basis for further research, but then moves on.
Overall, I think that Hills is to be commended for taking on this long-overdue project and producing a very solid and readable book. I'd recommend it to anyone with an interest in Australia's role in World War II and it will hopefully encourage further work on both Long and the official history.
Publishing details:Hills, Garry (2025).Great at Heart: Gavin Merrick Long, Australia's Official Second World War Historian. Sydney: NewSouth Publishing.ISBN 9781761170201.
Recent external reviews |
Dunn, Steve (2025).Spectre of Invasion: The Royal Navy and the Defence of Britain's Coast, 1900–1918. Barnsley, United Kingdom: Seaforth Publishing.ISBN 9781399039901.
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